EDITORIAL

12/19/2005

Winning the War on Christmas

By Bob Ellis

Editor

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm usually griping about something. When you're an observer of society, that tends to come too naturally, especially when you live in a society on the decline.

Griping also happens all too often when the only people who might stand in the way of societal decay--Christians and other conservatives--all too often say and do nothing to defend their own values. It's frustrating to see a great civilization, begun over 200 years ago, slide into a morass of permissiveness, self-absorption, irresponsibility and disintegration--and the conservatives who want to avoid this do little to fight it. It's even more disturbing to witness 3,0000-year-old Judeo-Christian values get sacrificed on the altar of convenience, popularity and getting along--and people who should be willing to give their lives for their faith say and do nothing. Christians and other conservatives are busy people, trying to raise families, and by nature tend to avoid confrontations, but that doesn't dissolve frustration at their all-too-often inaction.

But as this year's Christmas approaches, I have reason to give thanks and kudos that people seem to have finally realized what's at stake. People are finally standing up in droves against the unending assault on Christmas by the ACLU (American Communists and Liberals Union) and other secularists. It's such a refreshing development that I confess I'm still in a mild state of shock.

The war against Christmas has been going on for years. It's become so commonplace that someone finally wrote a book about it. Fox News host John Gibson has written a book called The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought, and it's selling well.

The list of attacks on Christmas is a long and often similar one:

• A Wisconsin elementary school changed the Christmas carol "Silent Night" to a secularized version called "Cold in the Night"

• Teachers in a Georgia elementary school were banned from wearing any sort of Christmas pin that had a religious connotation, and from using the word "Christmas"

• An Oregon school prohibited a kindergartner from giving out Christmas cards which told of the religious origin of the candy cane last year

• A Massachusetts school prohibited the same "candy cane" Christmas cards two years ago

• An elementary school in Oklahoma would not allow any references to Christmas in its "holiday" play, but left references to Hanukkah and the manufactured 1960s black American holiday of Kwanzaa

• A school in Massachusetts told second graders to bring a book to class that represented their Christmas traditions, but when one girl brought a religious-based book, she was told she couldn't share her book with the class

• Teachers in Sacramento, California were told they could not use the word "Christmas" in oral or written communication

• A school in Tacoma, Washington changed the word "Christmas" to "winter" in a Christmas carol to be sung at a Christmas concert

• Denver also banned a group of Christians from having a float in the Christmas parade because they wanted to sing Christmas carols and have a banner that said "Merry Christmas"

• One school district in Plano, Texas even went so far as to ban the colors red and green from holiday celebrations

However there are some victories already this year--but only because people are standing up to the secularists:

• The Wisconsin school mentioned above has agreed to bring back "Silent Night" after many calls and emails from the public, and a letter from the Liberty Counsel defending religious liberty

• Two federally subsidized housing facilities in Winter Park, Florida and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania have told residents they can't sing Christmas carols and they can't decorate their doors with religious symbols, but after Liberty Counsel action, they have relented

• Citizens in Beaver Borough, Pennsylvania recently won the battle to set up a nativity scene on public property. The town had pulled the display after it had been up for several weeks, fearing they would run afoul of ACLU jackals.

• Macys, Target and Wal-Mart have dropped their bans on Christmas after the American Family Association announced boycotts of their businesses for removing references to Christmas from their stores

• Students at Auburn University in Alabama protested the renaming of the Christmas tree to "Holiday Tree" and got it changed back to a "Christmas Tree"

• Wellington, Florida relented after public protests and will now allow a crèche to be included in a holiday display on public property

• "Just Say 'Merry Christmas'" Christmas bracelets are selling like hotcakes this year as thousands of people in nearly every state seek to make their own statement against the politically correct "Happy Holidays" slogan

• A school district in Wisconsin backed down from its policy of prohibiting children from handing out Christmas cards that included the religious origins of the candy cane

• The mayor of Denver had planned to change a sign outside the Denver City Hall from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays," but relented after a week of public pressure

It's good to see people standing up to the likes of the ACLU and to government officials who have been cowed into subservience to the organization founded by communist Roger Baldwin who said, "I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately the abolishing of the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal."  People are waking up to the fact that this organization has nothing to do with civil liberties, and everything to do with tearing down what has made America great--and they're not putting up with it anymore.

The boycotts announced by AFA and others also illustrated that whose who poo-poo the power of boycotts are wrong. Putting your money where your values are is never wrong, and as Target and Wal-Mart have proven, it can change things.

Hopefully Christians and other conservatives will take note of these victories, and this will be just the beginning of a campaign to take America back from the secularists who have hijacked this "one nation under God." Perhaps we will see Christians take back Christmas so that the 96% of Americans who celebrate it can once again exercise their First Amendment right to be free from religious oppression. It might even be the beginning of a movement to return religious freedom and acknowledgement of America's Christian heritage to the rest of the year, too.

Merry Christmas and God bless you!